Mooninites Attack Boston!!!

[Bando]

This is absolutely ridiculous:

www.thebostonchannel.com/news/10890113/detail.html#

In short, the Cartoon Network puts Lite Brite-like signs all over cites in anticipation of the new Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie. After being up for weeks, a commuter spots one and thinks it's a bomb, calls Boston PD. Boston proceeds to over-react like crazy.

i50.photobucket.com/albums/f308/jimmyisgay1/mooninites.jpg

We smoke as we flip you the bird, Boston.

[HealyHoya]

No, THIS is absolutely ridiculous...


Turner and Marketer Will Pay Massachusetts $2 Million (Update3)

By Michael McDonald and Brian K. Sullivan

Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Time Warner Inc.'s Turner Broadcasting unit and a New York marketing company will reimburse Massachusetts state and local agencies $2 million in costs tied to a promotional stunt that went awry on Jan. 31.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley announced the settlement this morning in Boston. Atlanta-based Turner and Interference Inc., the marketing company, will pay the state as well as Boston, Somerville and Cambridge, Coakley said.

www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a._kXZkpNi3g&refer=us

[Bando]

Boston sucks.

[DrumsGoBang]

The movie looks sweet!!

[DanMcQ]

bando said:

Boston sucks.

Don't hold us responsible for the buffoons the ruling monarchy puts in charge of the government in this state.


Oh, and as moderator, I have to remind you not to upload pictures directly to the board no matter how comical or cute or whatever they may be. Thanks.

[HoyaInsomniac]

I cannot WAIT for the movie.

[Boz]

I am looking forward to the following movies:

1. ATHF
2. Reno 911
3. The British cop movie from those guys who made "Sean Of The Dead."

I am dreading the following because I want them to be good and they almost certainly won't be:

1. Halo (don't fail your legion of geek followers, Peter Jackson!)
2. The Simpsons (they need to bring back all the writers from seasons 7-10)

[Bando]

danmcq said:

bando said:

Boston sucks.

Don't hold us responsible for the buffoons the ruling monarchy puts in charge of the government in this state.


Oh, and as moderator, I have to remind you not to upload pictures directly to the board no matter how comical or cute or whatever they may be. Thanks.

Oh come one, it's more Mennino than anything. He's apparently scared of a lite brite.

I stand by my affirmation of Beantown suckitude.

[HealyHoya]

Here's my take:

Monday, February 05, 2007
Boston: Ground Zero for Over-Reaction

In a sign that the entire city of Boston, Massachusetts, as well as several surrounding communities, have lost their collective sense of perspective, Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) and guerilla marketing firm Interference, Inc. have agreed to pay $2 million to make amends for last Wednesday’s marketing scheme that led to a bomb scare, crippling public transport systems, negatively affecting business and costing local and state agencies thousands of dollars.

TBS and Interference hired two men to place 38 electronic devices in locations in and around Boston. Early Wednesday, transit police were notified about one of them in Charlestown and treated it as a possible bomb.

Ok, at first blush it seems that Boston, acting through Attorney General Martha Coakley, was well within the bounds of propriety in demanding remuneration from TBS and Interference. But that’s at first blush…if you dig just a little deeper and ask some very basic questions, it becomes readily apparent that Boston and the surrounding communities did a terrible disservice to their citizens, TBS and Interference, Inc., and ultimately to the rest of us across the United States.

First Question: Why was Boston the only city to (over)react in this way?

This marketing campaign, which was to promote the Cartoon Network’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force – a show about animate food, had been going on for two to three weeks in nine cities. Boston; New York; Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; Atlanta, Georgia; Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Austin, Texas; San Francisco, California; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In no other city was the campaign mistaken for a terrorist threat. People from Boston are complete freaks. This is a fact backed by science.

Second Question: How much training does a local, state or federal homeland security official need before they are proficient are distinguishing a child’s toy (LiteBrite) accompanied by an external battery pack from a bomb with sufficient potential explosive force to destroy the Longfellow or Boston University bridges?

The answer is unclear but evidently not a single first responder in this situation was able to or felt comfortable saying that these were clearly not bombs.

Third Question: TBS will pay an as-yet undetermined portion of the $2 million fine. Do Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, Massachusetts Attorney General Coakley, and the people of these communities understand that TBS got more advertising value from this campaign because of Boston’s complete overreaction than they would have if, say, the freaks in Boston had simply acted like rational humans like the, say, 40 million people who live in the other eight cities in which the exact same guerilla marketing campaign also took place?

39 LiteBrites................................$1,000

Fines............................................$1,000,000

Having the Associated Press,

CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, and

every newspaper and magazine

in the Western Hemisphere

cover this story for 2 weeks..........PRICELESS.
I realize that on this crazy, mixed up, post-9/11, blue marble we call Earth that we have to take every threat seriously but, come on, do we have to take every threat seriously? Aqua Team Hunger Force in the cunning guise of LiteBrites?

What's next? Strawberry Shortcake marches on the Pentagon? Thomas the Tank overthrows Amtrak? My Little Pony gains control of the New York Stock Exchange?

If we've set the Department of Homeland Security Code Red, shut-down-bridges-and-tunnels, close-seaports-and-waterways, block-interstate-highways-bar that low haven't we painted ourselves into an impossibly sensitive, guaranteed to overreact corner? It seems so.

I can appreciate the need for safety precautions. I can appreciate the need for vigilance. I can appreciate -- as I'm sure you can, too -- the need for security. But as the fine folks running the City of Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have so adeptly, if unwittingly, shown, there is a fine line to tread between homeland security and downhome absurdity.

My Teddy Ruxpin tells me Beantown went too far in this instance.

[DanMcQ]

bando said:

danmcq said:

Don't hold us responsible for the buffoons the ruling monarchy puts in charge of the government in this state.


Oh, and as moderator, I have to remind you not to upload pictures directly to the board no matter how comical or cute or whatever they may be. Thanks.

Oh come one, it's more Mennino than anything. He's apparently scared of a lite brite.

I stand by my affirmation of Beantown suckitude.

Re: Menino - you are referred to my prior statement.

As for your affirmation, jealousy is a terrible thing, good luck with that.

[Bando]

So wait, Dan, are you saying Mennino is somehow appointed mayor by the state? Because I'm pretty sure the mayor of Boston is elected by the citizens of Boston. And even if you're blaming the state, I'm pretty sure Deval Patrick won the city and its environs handily in the last gubernatorial election. You have only your own Pats-cheering selves to blame for your current leadership.

Jealous, eh? Who's the one who skipped over a perfectly good Jesuit university in Brighton to attend one in DC? Way to show the hometown pride there, Danno.

[AustinHoya03]

The level of distress was high here in Austin. From the Austin American-Statesman story: "Austin police spokeswoman Toni Chovanetz said the marketing company told the department about the devices Wednesday afternoon and was working with the city to remove them. She did not know where the devices were placed."

[DanMcQ]

bando said:

So wait, Dan, are you saying Mennino is somehow appointed mayor by the state? Because I'm pretty sure the mayor of Boston is elected by the citizens of Boston. And even if you're blaming the state, I'm pretty sure Deval Patrick won the city and its environs handily in the last gubernatorial election. You have only your own Pats-cheering selves to blame for your current leadership.

Jealous, eh? Who's the one who skipped over a perfectly good Jesuit university in Brighton to attend one in DC? Way to show the hometown pride there, Danno.

Allow me to point out a couple of factual errors in the underpinning of your excellent argument, Sir:

1. BenedictArnold College is located in Chestnut Hill (say that with your nose in the air), not Brighton.

2. I grew up in Milwaukee, not here, so the perfectly good Jesuit university I skipped is the one the Hoyas are playing on Saturday.

3. I do not actually live within the city limits of Boston so TM is not my fault.

4. PT Barnum could run as a Democrat in Massachusetts and win.

;D

Oh, and the proper spelling is Dan-O (just ask Jack Lord).

[Bando]

Sir, my own refutation, if it pleases you:

1. Same thing. I could have easily said Newton.
2. My apologies and pity for living in "the good land".
3. You should change your profile then, methinks.
4. You realize that you just came out of 12 years of Republican control of the governor's mansion, right?

Forsooth.

[DanMcQ]

bando said:

Sir, my own refutation, if it pleases you:

1. Same thing. I could have easily said Newton.
2. My apologies and pity for living in "the good land".
3. You should change your profile then, methinks.
4. You realize that you just came out of 12 years of Republican control of the governor's mansion, right?

Forsooth.

Well played, except for number 4. Everyone who lives here knows that the person that really runs the state is the Speaker of the House. Hasn't been a Republican in that spot for a dog's age. Oh, and number 3 is weak too - a guy has to leave something to the imagination.

[Bando]

As a fitting coda: Jack Bauer vs. the Aqua Teen Hunger Force

[DanMcQ]

Bando: outstanding. ;D